How to access the control panel in Windows 8

Another thing we took for granted that has disappeared into the ether slightly with Windows 8 is Control Panel. Getting hold of it isn’t as easy as it used to be, but it’s still there. I’m going to tell you two ways to get to it. Because they did not make it easy to find.

1. All you need do is open the Search charm from the Charm menu as we describe earlier. You can find it by dragging right with your finger or moving the cursor to the lower left corner of the screen. Once you have done that, simply type Control Panel into the Search charm and there you have it, the Control Panel should be sitting in front of you.

2. Get to Desktop mode, and right click anywhere, then scroll down to Personalize, click on that. From there on the left side of the window will be Change Desktop icons, and then click on that. Now add the Computer icon to the Desktop screen. Then Double click COMPUTER, then on the right side you’ll see a drop down arrow click on that, then in the menu area at the top of the window you will see the CONTROL PANEL icon.
Click on this icon, now, to view the entire contents of the control panel, look for an arrow on the upper right area of this window and look for the words “category”, click that little arrow and a drop down menu opens, choose small or large icons. Now all of the control panel options and shortcuts will be viewable and accessible.